rythiaefandomcom-20200213-history
Ardania
Ardania is a large kingdom in south-eastern Feronia, and newly independent from the Eastern Empire of Sacred Rythia. History Ardania, formerly known as Porolissa, has been inhabited at least since the dawn of recorded history. For a long time, primitive tribes scratched a living from the land. Worshippers of the Celtic Pantheon, they lived in relative harmony with nature. Ancient Porolissa The first known records of Porolissa come from the writings of the historian Gundronica, who wrote in the 6th century BC of the "noble Scymren", an ancient Elossian name for the Porolissans. Their region was known as Porolissa, which was considered to be part of the larger land of Ion. The two peoples were related, and shared a language, but the Porolissans lived further to the west than the Ionites, and developed a separate culture over the years. Porolissan Kingdom Around the beginning of the 4th century BC, Elossian sources start referring to a "king of the Porolissans". Gundronica, writing in her volume Peoples of the Blue River, described the Porolissans as paying homage to a single king. The accuracy of her characterisation of Porolissa as a single kingdom is disputed, as it is believed to have operated in this period more as a land of separate tribes, but the occasional Porolissan warlord arose who would slay a dragon, or tame a roost of griffons or accomplish some other such feat of valour, and who would then lead many of the different tribes together in a war against neighbouring lands (often the lands of the Elossians) for plunder and temporary conquest. Elossian Colonisation Ironically, it was not until attempts at colonisation by the Elossians began that a unified Porolissan kingdom arose. The Elossians had long had trading contact with the Porolissans, but in the middle of the 3rd century, traders from Melos established colonies on the Porolissan coast such as Anbor, Likon, and Hessos. Initially trading posts, these colonies started to take land from the local tribes, and this led to conflict between the colonists and the locals. In 236 BC, the War of Gerta's Cattle brought events to a head. The war essentially started as a dispute over pasture rights between an Elossian farmer and his neighbour - a Porolissan woman named Gerta. At some point, Gerta injured an Elossian slave when driving interlopers from what she saw as her land. In response, the Elossian farmer stole Gerta's prized cattle (about half a dozen cows). Things escalated to reciprocal barn burnings, and eventually led to a skirmish between Elossian colonists from the three major cities, and a tribe of Porolissans. After the Porolissans suffered a defeat, the Elossians enslaved them took their land. There things would have ended, but the Elossians diverted a stream to irrigate their new farmland, and inadvertently caused a sacred pond to dry up. News of this spread from newly-enslaved Porolissans to the other tribes, who would not stand for this sacrilege and attack on their ancestors. A mighty host/unruly mob of Porolissans was roused, and under the leadership of Hadrissa - a Porolissan warlord who claimed to be descended from the god of the river - they attacked the colonies, razed most of them to the ground, and put the colonists to the sword. A crafty politician as well as a skilled general, Hadrissa used the occasion of her victory to crown herself queen of the Porolissans. This was the first such coronation to be attested in history (others being legendary and unverifiable), and was witnessed by several enslaved Elossians who were brought to the coronation for their literacy and later sold back to Melos. Rythian Conquest After their victory over the Melean colonists, Porolissa entered a period of relative security from external threats. Their fearsome reputation warded off any further attempts to colonise their lands or subjugate them. However, they slipped back into internal squabbling, and by the mid 80's BC they were no longer unified. When the Rythians conquered Elos and became the new southern neighbours of the Porolissans, the Porolissans were a shadow of their former threat. Rythians traded with the Porolissans at first, but slowly began to annex parts of southern Porolissa. By 44 BC, the Rythian Empire stretched all along the Blue River. Peace reigned along this frontier for more than a century, but by the mid-80's AD, the peace had broken down. A string of incompetent or malicious governors of Rythian Porolissa had forced many Porolissans within the empire to flee north across the Blue River. Similarly, the free Porolissans had launched raids into Rythian territory to take cattle and slaves. Responding to the crisis, the Emperor Titian fortified the Blue River, and such was the concentration of fortifications and armour along there that it became known as the Steel River, a name that has survived from posterity as the Stellen Flow. The fortifications repelled and deterred raids, but peace did not last for long. Civil strife under Titian's grandson Janus Tullius weakened the empire and drew soldiers away from Porolissa. Seeing his chance, the Porolissan king Miloballus invaded the empire, and capturing the Rythian settlements and forts across the river. Janus Tullius took his troops to repel the invasion, and Miloballus's forces retreated back across the Stellen Flow. Tullius took his troops across the river, but his army was crushed in an ambush by Miloballus at the Battle of Varag's Gate. The emperor was forced into a humiliating peace, ceding large areas to Miloballus. The peace had two effects, Miloballus became secure in his position as King of the Porolissans, and Janus Tullius was murdered by the Praetorian Guard at the behest of the man to become his successor - Moritius. Moritius was twice the man that his predecessor had been, and as a dwarf had the ability to take the long view. He spent the first 60 years of his reign sorting out the empire's internal problems, and by the time he turned his attention to settling old scored in Porolissa, Miloballus was dead and buried along with his children and grandchildren, and his great grandaughter Decebala ruled a realm that thought that it was at peace. The Porolissans had been raiding the lands of neighbouring barbarian tribes, and when some of them sent envoys to Rythia to plea for protection, that provided all the pretext that Moritius needed to invade. He delivered a simple ultimatum, that the Porolissans should surrender all of the land south of the Stellen Flow to the empire, and accept imperial suzerainity, or they would be subjected by force. Moritius didn't wait to receive a reply before moving his troops into the south of Porolissa. Over the course of two wars between 162-170, Moritius reconquered old land, and conquered all of the Porolissan land north of the Stellen Flow. The war was decisive, and the Porolissans would never free themselves from imperial rule. Golgathan Invasions From the middle of the 4th century, barbarians started to migrate into the Rythian Empire. Generally, the Southern Rythian Empire was able to deflect most of these, settling them on their borders or moving them on to the Northern Empire. However, one of the groups they settled, the Golgathans, wouldn't sit peacefully. Over the period of 398-441, supposed unfair treatment of the Golgathans, and pressures from barbarians to the east led to the Golgathans going to war with the Rythians. They conquered and occupied the area around the Stellen Flow, and set up a kingdom there. The Golgathan kingdom was neither peaceful nor stable, and frequently collapsed as rival warlords vied for power and crowned themselves. Although part of their land was now lost, the Rythians were able to sleep peacefully as the Golgathans spent most of their time fighting amongst themselves, and the rare invasion they managed of the Southern Empire was usually repelled with a mixture of organised Rythian legions and hired Golgathan mercenaries. Further Barbarian Invasions Over the next 500 years, a series of migratory barbarians from the north and east invaded and occupied Porolissa and the neighbouring lands. First the Volgars, then the wood-elf Gokmen, and then finally the wild-elf Kelblan. The Kelblan Khagan established a state in the land, and quickly converted to the worship of the Rythian gods, whose faith had been the only thing to survive the retreat of the empire from Porolissa. The Kelblan Khaganate was not a peaceful state, and would routinely raid nearby lands for slaves and plunder. They remained a blight on Southeastern Feronia for nearly 40 years. Eastern Empire of Sacred Rythia The rule of the Kelblans came to an end at the start of the second millennium. Having been crowned as emperor of the Eastern Empire of Sacred Rythia in 1,000, Caroline the Great was quickly called to defend her new realm from the Kelblans. The khagan was testing the new emperor, to see how long she would last. The khagan reckoned without Caroline's brilliance, and in a single war, she conquered the Kelblans and threw down the khagan. From that time, Porolissa became part of the empire. Sezelek Conquest Towards the end of the 12th century, another migratory barbarian people, the Sezeleky, invaded Feronia. This coincided with a time of imperial weakness, and when the Sezeleky invaded a large area of the southeastern empire and ousted the local aristocracy, the emperor was powerless to intervene. Counts of Adlar The Sezeleky did not have a unified state, and western or Hither Sezeleky developed a rivalry with the eastern or Thither Sezeleky. The Thither Sezeleky had crowned their ruler as a king, and the king tried to subjugate the Hither Sezeleky. Seeking protection of a powerful neighbour, the Hither Sezeleky (who occupied the land roughly coterminous with old Porolissa) appealed to the empire for aid. The emperor agreed to help, so long as Porolissa would resume its status as part of the empire, and would be considered to have remained a part of the empire, but under the rulership of the dominant family of the Hither Sezeleky - the House of Adlar. The joint alliance of the Hither Sezeleky and the Empire was able to resist the Thither Sezeleky, and thereafter the Adlars ruled as the counts of Porolissa. Adlar Crusades Adlar rule of Porolissa continued to the 16th century. During this time, the house of Adlar slowly degenerated into corruption and evil, and for the last century and a half, the count was in fact the same person, the vampire Boleslaw. By killing his heirs and taking their place, Boleslaw was able to maintain the illusion of Porolissa being ruled by a stable dynasty. However, he acquired a taste for the blood of the high born - esteeming its flavour more highly than that of unmissed peasants - and this caused his eventual discovery. Boleslaw took in a young noblewoman - Kozmara of Steinbeck - whom he believed to be an orphan (her parents Valmir and Hilda had died in a war), and he gained a taste for her blood. He fell in love with Kozmara, and made her a vampire. However, a statue of Kozmara's long lost father was found to have a transmutation aura upon it, and during a routine dispelling was discovered to actually be the person of Valmir of Steinbeck himself. Valmir quickly discovered his daughter's vampirism and sealed her in her coffin. He petitioned the emperor and various popes and archbishops for help, and in short order there was a crusade into Porolissa. A lot of help came from the King of Telamon, whose bastard son Le Corbeaux (Telamonic for "the Raven") gathered knights to his banner with a particular expertise in battling the undead. Le Corbeaux himself died in the crusade, but it was one of his knights who slew Boleslaw, and the vampires were blasted from the face of the land. Many Telamonic knights remained in Porolissa, founding the Order of the Raven and supplantic the Sezeleky aristocracy. Padanian Expansion The new counts of Porolissa were the Normonts. Eventually, through intermarriage, the county was inherited by the dukes of Padania, and the title became a junior one in the house of Padania. Foundation of Ardania When Siegfried III of Padania was crowned by the emperor as the first King of Padania, Siegfried raised his daughter Arda Count of Porolissa, to the rank of duke, and renamed Porolissa as a Duchy. House of Zelten Arda married the eldest son of the Duke of Zelten, Marius von Zelten. Marius was a dashing adventurer, and as his house was technically superior to that of Arda at the time of their birth, Arda took his name, and the House of Zelten became the ruling family of Ardania. They were thereafter known colloquially as the House of Zelten of Ardania. Rise of the Grand Duchy The von Zeltens were able rulers, and loyal vassals of Padania. As the Padanians prospered and grew in their esteem, so did Ardania. Eventually, in the 19th century, King Leopold I raised Ardania to the status of Grand Duchy and granted its rulers the privilege of non-appeal. This trust was repaid, and the grand dukes of Ardania were loyal allies and vassals of the Padanians. The intermingling of rulership meant that there was a porous border between the two states, with vassals of one holding land in the other and vice versa. War of the Ardanian Secession In the aftermath of the Serpent Plague, Sigismund, the Grand Duke of Ardania, presided over a Cuthbertine inquisition into suspected members of the Vanguard of Sertrous. One of the people sentenced to death by the inquisition was the daughter of an advisor of Ludwig II, King of Padania. Relations were already strained between Sigismund and Ludwig, and when Ludwig tried to overrule the Ardanian sentence of death, Sigismund sent the royal seals back to Padania and declared Ardania independent of Padania. Emperor Wermund sided with the Padanians, and war broke out. The war was brutal and bloody, and ravaged Ardania savagely. Loyalties were tested, and families were split as brothers honoured oaths to different lords. However, despite the emperor siding with Padania, the Ardanians had the various militant arms of churches involved in the inquisition on their side. Zealous crusaders won the day for the Ardanians. In the aftermath, the Cuthbertine Pope raised the grand duchy to a kingdom, and Sigismund was crowned as the first king of Ardania by the Archbishop of Steinburg, a Pelorite cleric. To solidify his rule, Sigismund renamed his house as the House of Ardania, and renamed the town of Zeltenberg (the site of his coronation) to Konigsberg - literally the king's city. Geography Location in the World Ardania lies to the north of the Southern Rythian Empire, and on the eastern border of Eastern Empire of Sacred Rythia. Geographical Features Erythnul's Teeth Porolissan Mountains Stellen Flow Regions Konigsland Porolmark Stellenmark Sudmark Steinmark Towns & Cities Konigsberg Government & Politics Monarchy & Royal Family Ardania is ruled by the House of Ardania, a cadet branch of the Dakrun House of Zelten. The monarch is descended from the House of Padania in the female line. Having recently won a major war, the monarchy is quite popular amongst the people, and as that war was fought with the church against the empire, the monarchy is also popular amongst the clergy. King Sigismund I wears a crown forged for him by gnomish jewellers and blessed by both popes. His official title, as agreed between the Shining Light, the Fist of Valour, and the Church of St. Cuthbert, is "His Apostolic Majesty", as they see his rule being in succession to that of St. Cuthbert (being that it is just and adheres to religious law), Heironeous (being that it is founded on crusading zeal), and Pelor (being that it is founded on fierce opposition to the undead). Sigismund is widowed from his first wife, Princess Cecilia of Sapphenland, who died from a snake bite during the Serpent Plague. Her death also resulted in that of their unborn child. Cecilia was a knight of the Raven, and met Sigismund when she journeyed to Ardania to complete her induction in the homeland of the order. Sigismund loved Cecilia like no other and looked up to her - he maintains that she was stronger and braver than him - and he and his royal guards still wear black in mourning for her. After the War of the Ardanian Secession, Sigismund married Sophia, the grandaughter of the Emperor Vitellius (of the Southern Rythian Empire). Where Cecilia was strong and brave, Sophia is cunning and skilled at diplomacy and statecraft. Although Sigismund's brother Prince Wolfgang is the Lord High Chancellor, it is said that it is Sophia who really holds the country together. Sophia has one child by Sigismund, a daughter named Matilda. In the event of Sigismund's untimely death, it is likely that Prince Wolfgang would become regent. Regional Government Ardania is divided into four great marches: Porolmark, Stellenmark, Sudmark, and Steinmark. Additionally, there is Konigsland. Each of the great marches is ruled by a margrave. The margraves of Stellenmark, Sudmark, and Steinmark are all the historic rulers of those realms, and remained loyal to Sigismund during the secession war. The margrave of Porolmark was installed after the rebellion due to the previous holder's refusal to side with Sigismund against the emperor. The previous landgrave of Zeltenland was killed in battle, and so Sigismund appointed a new landgrave when he renamed Zeltenland to Konigsland. The five great lords have a great deal of power, but Sigismund has been careful not to elevate any of them to ducal rank, as that would afford them too much independence with the ability to mint coinage and levy their own taxes. Ardania has a feudal government, with the great lords holding power by the grace of the king, lesser lords (counts, barons, and lower-ranked lords) holding power by the grace of the great lords, and landed knights holding power by the grace of the lesser lords. In turn, yeomen and burghers pay taxes and provide military service for knights, who do the same for the lords, who do the same for their lords, who do the same for the king. Alongside secular rule, many areas are ruled directly by a church, abbey, or holy order. The abbeys of monks, and the chapter houses of the Knights of the Raven especially tend to attract trade, and towns build up around them. These areas owe the same service to the king, but they do it via bishops and chapter masters rather than the lay nobility. International Relations As can be imagined, relations between Ardania and the EESR are about as low as they could be short of being at war, and relations with Padania somehow manage to be worse. Much tension has been caused on this front by the necessity of redrawing old borders where rivers have changed their course, and finding an equitable solution to situations where a noble on one side of the border may have declared for the king on the other. Rarely, borders have been redrawn to move an existing estate from one land to the other, but more commonly, estates are confiscated from so-called "traitors", and then awarded to a "loyalist" who has had their estates confiscated by the enemy. The marriage of Sigismund to Sophia has brought about good relations with the Southern Rythian Empire, and Sophia's diplomacy has improved relations with other Feronian states - especially Telamon and Midgard. Law & Order Legal Code The legal code of Ardania is derived from that of Padania, which is itself derived from that of the EESR, which in turn is derived from a mixture of religious law, old Dakrun customs, and the law code of Alexius the Lawgiver, a Southern Rythian Emperor from the 8th century AD. Punishments are prescribed for various offences, although the body trying the offcence has a great deal of flexibility over the exact punishment, and even the form that the trials take. A harsh characterisation of the Ardanian law code is that it is designed to protect the gentry and the clergy from the people and each other, and designed to give the people some means of getting restitution against injustice. The king is above the law, but the royal family is not. Due to old laws not being struck out, there are many laws that would be though of as odd in other countries - such as a prohibition on the burial of corpses face up, and a punishment for adultery that involves the guilty party being hurled via judicial trebuchet. Judicial System Generally speaking, the ruler of a particular area reserves the right to hear cases, and tends to designate to their inferiors. Any titled lord can hear a case (knights cannot), and the same is true for abbots and bishops. Lords tend to appoint legal experts as judges in their stead, and either issue rulings based on their advice, or leave the ruling to the jurists. However, lords often enjoy the privilege of handing out sentences themselves. Abbots and bishops tend to favour settling trials by ordeal (in cases where the state is the prosecutor). Trial by combat is afforded as a right to all those of at least the rank of knight, and sometimes judges insist on it (much to the chagrin of unprepared plaintiffs). Military Ardania does not have a standing army as such. When the king went to war, his lords and knights armed themselves and their peasants, the holy orders set their work aside, and all set forth as a typical feudal army. Individual lords and knights may maintain small retinues, and the king maintains a royal guard, but typically, armies are mobilised as the need arises during war, and are supplemented with mercenaries, free companies, and hedge knights. Law Enforcement & Crime Although the secession war has ended, Ardania is not at peace. Law enforcement was traditionally handled by local lords in conjunction with officials such as a bailiff or a reeve/sheriff. However, many lords and knights died during the war, along with those who would be sheriffs or in a posse raised by them. The consequences of this are that much of Ardania is a lawless place, and monsters are not kept in check. Worse is the fact that some people back from the wars - especially those who now find themselves landless - have put their weapons, armour, and military training to use as little more than bandits and highwaymen. Religion & Society Ardania is a very religious place, the recent inquisition against the Vanguard has ensured that. Rythian Pantheon By far the most widely-worshipped pantheon in Ardania is the Rythian Pantheon. Fully 90% of the population worship one of the Rythian gods. Church of Saint Cuthbert Over a third of Ardanians worship St. Cuthbert. His message of law and retribution is popular amongst a people in a society blighted by war and lawlessness. The church provides stability, and is often more of a reliable source of order than the secular authorities. The head of the church in Ardania is the cardinal archbishop of Zeltenberg, presently His Eminence Vladimir Pudic, a hill dwarf cleric. There are many monastic orders of St. Cuthbert, and abbeys and monasteries can be found in most counties. Shining Light of Pelor The second-largest religion in Ardania is that of Pelor. The god of the sun and life, he is popular in a realm that still remembers the dark days of undead rule by the Von Adlar counts. The Shining Light tends not to have as much in the way of monasteries or abbeys as the Church of St. Cuthbert, and most of its clergy take their preaching into the community to convert new souls. Old Faith A significant number of people in Ardania still follow the Old Faith, worshipping Obad-Hai (and the Celtic Pantheon through him). They tend to gather in sacred groves and stone circles to worship, and their faith is not one built on foundations of monasticism or proselytising like the churches of Pelor or St. Cuthbert. Other Rythian Cults Most other Rythian gods are worshipped in Ardania, either in their own temples, or at shrines in others. As givers of law and stability, Heironeous and Hextor have perhaps the largest cults of these other gods. Other Pantheons Norse Pantheon Olympian Pantheon Class Holy Orders Culture Vistani